Category / Awarded & submitted bids

As many as possible of the citizens of a democracy must be not only literate but critically literate if they are to behave as full citizens. (Hoggart, 2004: 189)

CEMP have published the outcomes of an ethnography funded by the United States Embassy in London, consisting of a field review, 25 interviews and four multi-stakeholder workshops, bringing together and capturing dialogue between media educators, journalists, students and information professionals, to address the educational response to ‘fake news’ and disinformation.

25 interviews with media educators and journalists were transcribed and analysed for key discursive patterns. Participative workshops were held at the Media Education Summit in Hong Kong, the English and Media Centre in London, the National Higher Research University in Moscow and Loughborough University’s campus at Olympic Park, London. The total sample, including the interviews and participants in the workshops, is 88, across the four stakeholder groups.

See the project site for the field review, workshop videos, presentations, participant blog, report, recommendations and the ‘top ten’ toolkit of media literacy resources selected by the stakeholders for dealing with fake news.

At the major event in London, with additional sponsorship from the Media Education Association, two days of activities in London at the Olympic Park on 15th and 16th March 2019 brought together the four stakeholder groups for a public event consisting of keynote presentations and a panel comprised of the US and UK academics involved in the project – Professor David Buckingham, Professor Monica Bulger, Professor Paul Mihaildis, Dr Karen Fowler-Watt and Dr Roman Gerodimos.

The workshop was designed to generate dialogue on four issues: (1) clarifying the problem (the apparent ‘information disorder’) from lived experience of the stakeholders; (2) identifying any competing or partly integrated discourses around the concept of trust in media and information; (3) evaluating a range of educational resources already in the world – we called this ‘testing the wheel’ and (4) agreeing on what media education can realistically do, to move beyond ‘solutionism’ (Buckingham, 2019) towards a more viable, modest proposal for Fake News vs Media Studies. Where do / can we have agency?

From the findings of the project, we make the argument that critical media literacy, if adopted as a mandatory subject in schools and taught as a dynamic literacy education, would better equip young citizens with resilience to ‘information disorder’ (Wardle and Derekhshan, 2017) than reactive resources (such as fact-checking and verification tools) and small-scale projects which focus primarily on competences. The latter are described, metaphorically, as ‘giving a fish’, the former are described as ‘teaching to fish’. To use an alternative analogy, the former boosts the immune system, the latter treat the infection (see Rushkoff, 2018).

Both are needed, but ‘teaching to fish’ is the key recommendation, and, in the UK schools’ context, making Media Studies a mandatory subject would be the obvious starting point.

The workshop identified a ‘top ten’ of media literacy resources for dealing with information disorder. These include more holistic, critical media literacy activities (Teaching to Fish) – a more effective and sustainable approach than ‘giving a fish’ through fact-checking tools or surface level media / information literacy competences.

The data generated from the field review, interviews and workshops, taken together, lead us to the following three recommendations:

(1) Rather than producing competence frameworks for media literacy, as though it is a neutral set of skills for citizens, media education needs to enable students to apply the critical legacies of both Media Studies and literacy education on the contemporary media ecosystem;

(2) Media education must adopt adynamic approach to media literacy and increase the experiential, reflexive aspects of media practice in the curriculum, with reciprocal transfer between the critical rhetorics above and creative media practice in order to respond, academically, to media as primarily a question of representation. In other words, resilience to representation is enhanced by expertise in representing.

(3) We need to add the critical exploration of social media, algorithms and big data to the media education curriculum, accompanied by applied practical learning in the uses of them for social justice, as opposed to training the next generation in the use of these for even further commercial and political exploitation of one another.

The digital innovation in surgery presents a trend of precise, minimally invasive, and personalized features. This workshop aims to address the challenges by gathering, training and connecting the Early Career Researchers (ECRs) from different disciplines for better understanding of the complexity and contexts related to surgery technology and working together to develop impactful research projects, facilitated through the training from mentors and new joint research. The workshop will provide an excellent platform for both UK and Chinese ECRs to expand their research and stimulate collaboration on research and development, technology transfer and commercialization between UK and China.

Under the Researcher Links scheme (offered within the Newton Fund), Beihang University will be holding the workshop on the above theme in Liaoning Hotel Beijing on 16-18 October 2019. The workshop is being coordinated by Dr. Xiaosong Yang and Prof. Junjun Pan, and will have contributions from other leading researchers. We are now inviting ECRs from the UK or China to apply to attend this workshop. All travel and accommodation expenses will be covered by the Newton Fund Researcher Links programme. The application form, with more details on the initiative, can be found at https://displast.bournemouth.ac.uk/ and should be sent to xyang@bournemouth.ac.uk by an email titled “Researcher Links Workshop” before the deadline of 15 July 2019.

All rivers lead to the sea, which is why it is important to consider the health of both our rivers and oceans. To celebrate the United Nations’ World Oceans Day 2019 (https://www.un.org/en/events/oceansday/) Genoveva Esteban and Dan Franklin from BU’s Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, with help from Thomas Hardye Academy’s 6th Form students and science teachers, showed Prince of Wales (Dorchester) Year 1 pupils how to study the invertebrate indicators of clean water, by kick sampling. Not only is it an important sampling method, it’s great fun too! Pupils were thrilled with their findings and recognised the significance of keeping rivers clean. The activity took place at the River Laboratory near Wareham (Dorset). Dr John Davy-Bowker (BU Visiting Fellow and Freshwater Biological Association Fellow) is gratefully acknowledged for his help throughout the day.

Bournemouth University Charity Impact Fund is a fantastic way to facilitate engagement with charitable organisations if one wishes to increase the impact of our research as well as collaboration opportunities for our students. In my case, I will be organising the first ever Dorchester Science Festival during National Science Week 2020 with the aim of strengthening BU’s relationship with Dorset charities, and to reach out to the local community. Partners involved are the Dorset County Museum, Dorchester Arts, the Jurassic Coast Trust, The Institute of Physics, and the Thomas Hardye School Academy. Dorchester Town Council (although not a charity) is also a key partner to gain access to local venues. The longer-term ambition is to use this event as the basis for a Bournemouth Science Festival, an event that has never taken place. The date for the Dorchester Science Festival has now been fixed for Saturday 14th March 2020. You are all invited!

Three researchers from the Advances in Media Management research cluster, Dr John Oliver, Melanie Grey and myself (Searchmore Muridzo) recently attended the European Media Management Association (EMMA) annual conference in Limassol, Cyprus. This is the premier media management conference in Europe and boasts of some of the best brains and scholars in the unique niche field that incorporates media and management. I was fortunate enough to be one of two recipients of the EMMA Annual PhD Travel Grant which enabled me to travel to the conference.

To be a participant at the conference and be in the presence of some of the most renowned scholars in media management, such as Prof. Greg Lowe from Northwestern University (Qatar), was a humbling experience but also insightful, as the feedback on my paper has helped me to develop the thinking around my thesis. The conference presentations themselves were not only inspired works but engaging and thought provoking. Networking and potential collaborations in the future were another bonus that came with the conference attendance.

The European Media Management Association is a warm and friendly group of researchers. Overall, the experience was eye opening and beneficial from a personal, academic and cultural outlook.

The AHRC funded ‘Mass Grave Protection for Truth and Justice’ project webpage has gone live as part of the International Commission on Missing Persons’ website. For the duration of the project we will expand the page to include a ‘resource hub’ where we collate documents relevant for the investigation and protection of mass graves, such as standard operating procedures, best practice handbooks, court judgements, United Nations’ reports etc.

To ensure survivors’ rights can be more adequately protected, Dr Melanie Klinkner, AHRC Research Leadership Fellow and the ICMP have entered a partnership to develop much needed mass grave protection guidelines. The project adopts a collaborative approach and will bring together 20 expert participants from different disciplines and across the world. Over the course of the project, they will help shape, progress and finalise the mass grave protection guidelines to be published in autumn 2020. The first roundtable meeting is scheduled for 23-24 October 2019 to be held at Bournemouth University with expert-participants from Interpol, the International Criminal Court, NGOs, Physicians for Human Rights, United Nations investigations etc. taking part.

The final mass grave protection guideline will be available to download in English and in nine translated versions through the project page. This will help further the effective protection regime for the maintenance and investigation of mass graves to ultimately support survivors’ rights to truth and justice.

A call is open for Early Career Researchers (researchers within 10 years of completing their PhDs) with an interest in the sustainable management of coasts and estuaries to attend a workshop in Brazil aiming to promote research collaborations between the UK and Brazil. The workshop is coordinated by Dr Luciana Esteves in collaboration with Dr Alex Bastos from the Universidade Federal do Espirito Santo and will be held in Vitoria, 25-28 June 2019. All travel and accommodation expenses will be covered by the Newton Researcher Links programme. More details and the application form can be accessed here. The completed application form should be submitted before the deadline on 14th April 2019. The successful applicants will be notified by the end of April 2019.

Coastal and estuarine ecosystems worldwide are under pressure from population growth, environmental degradation and climate change impacts. It is now widely known that a healthy natural environment is crucial to social welfare and the world’s economy. Ecosystem-based management (EBM) has emerged as an integrated approach for the sustainable management of the trade-offs between socioeconomic development and nature conservation. EBM requires a transdisciplinary understanding of the natural system, nature-human interactions, and how they change through time. Academic research can help gaining this knowledge, which is crucial to inform policies and practical applications. The workshop will bring together researchers from Brazil and the UK from the social and natural sciences and practitioners to create the required combination of expertise to co-construct, advance and share knowledge to support estuarine and coastal EBM. Through inclusive and participatory activities and a field visit, the workshop will promote an in-depth discussion of how EBM can help reduce habitat loss, environmental degradation and depletion of natural resources; thus enabling social and economic development.

Activities will include a mix of scientific and technical discussions to stimulate capacity building opportunities through mentorship and sharing of experiences and knowledge. The workshop will focus on: identifying skills and knowledge required to enable research on EBM; the dissemination of good practice for the development of collaborative research (including equity and diversity in multicultural teams); and sharing information concerning funding opportunities. A key objective is to create long-lasting cross-sector (government-research) and UK-Brazil collaboration that facilitates research impact on policy and decision-making (i.e. to improve environmental health in estuaries and coasts and related economy). It is envisaged that participants, mentors and coordinators will identify opportunities for visiting fellowships, co-supervision and mobility of postgraduate students and stimulate the creation of research collaborations.

This workshop is supported by a Researcher Links grant [ID 2018-RLWK10-10723], under the Newton-CONFAP partnership. The grant is funded by the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and FAPES (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Espírito Santo) and delivered by the British Council.

Melanie Klinkner Principal Academic in International Law and AHRC Research Leadership Fellow and ICMP Director of Policy & Coordination Andreas Kleiser met at ICMP Headquarters in The Hague to formulate next steps in a process of cross-disciplinary consultation with experts from forensic sciences, international law, NGOs, the security sector, and international organizations. The guidelines will serve as a model for states, non-state actors, international agencies and authorities when faced with gross human rights violations or armed conflicts resulting in mass graves.

Working on the project will also be Dr Ellie Smith who has 15 years of experience within the International Human Rights, International Criminal Law and Humanitarian Law fields, gained through legal practice, civil society engagement and academic research. She has particular expertise in working with trauma, including within the post-conflict and justice-seeking contexts, as well as in the field of gender violence, investigation and prosecution. In collaboration with the Nuremberg Academy, she has formulated guiding principles and recommendations in relation to prosecution of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence.

ICMP is project partner to the AHRC funded research which is led by Melanie Klinkner. ICMP works with governments, civil society organizations, justice institutions, international organizations and others throughout the world to address the issue of people who have gone missing as a result of armed conflict, human rights abuses, disasters, organized crime, irregular migration and other causes.

For further information on the project, please contact: massgraveprotection@bournemouth.ac.uk

An Erasmus+ funded Strategic Partnership, in which Bournemouth University collaborated, has been classified as a “Good Practice Example” by the European Union. Further, the three-year project, International Learning Platform for Accountancy (ILPA), was nominated for the Special Education Award by the Austrian National Agency.

ILPA created a unique, innovative and comprehensive learning platform that has already been widely disseminated across Europe. The learning platform has been integrated into the curricula of many accounting units and all its teaching materials are available on the e-learning platform “OLAT” at the University of Innsbruck.

This well-established partnership continues to thrive and promote international education and collaborative scientific research in accountancy. Dr Phyllis Alexander of BU’s Business School now leads the 12 European Partners in the Erasmus+ funded Project, Developing Innovative Pedagogy for Complex Accounting Topics (DIPCAT). The first Intensive Study Programme (ISP) of DIPCAT will be held at Bournemouth University in September, this year.

BU will be host to 70+ students and 25+ academics from Europe and the United States for the 5-day ISP. The students will engage in the testing and development of four complex, integrated case studies: (1) international taxation, (2) financial reporting of financial instruments, (3) digitalization of audit, and (4) corporate social responsibility and tax avoidance. The case studies are being developed by accounting academics and qualified professionals to encompass some of the most complex issues facing the accounting profession today. By engaging with these case studies, students will be better prepared for the many challenges found within today’s global marketplace.

To learn of about ILPA or DIPCAT, please visit their linked homepages or contact Dr Alexander directly at palexander@bournemouth.ac.uk.

Following the launch of DESTI-SMART Delivering Efficient Sustainable Tourism with low-carbon transport Innovations: Sustainable Mobility, Accessibility and Responsible Travel on 27 September 2018, the first phase of the project (Semester 1) was completed on 30 November 2018.

The project will address the question of how best to protect Mass Graves to secure truth and justice for survivors. The project will do this by bringing together experts and stakeholders from the forensic sciences, criminal investigations, legal profession, NGOs, international organisations, security sector and survivor groups. Through a process of consultations and round-table discussions with these experts, Mass Grave Protection Guidelines will be developed and, once finalised, translated and disseminated to stakeholders.

The Career Development Fellowship has been a career-changing experience. It not only provides you with funding to lead a multidisciplinary team to conduct a research project of importance, but the opportunity to undertake a training and development programme. This has enabled me to further develop my skills and expertise in clinical trial research methods so that I can undertake larger, more complex studies, and therefore go on to produce much higher quality work with greater impact.

The new fellowship that I will start in January 2019 is a Clinical Trials Fellowship. These are designed to provide further advanced research methods training in clinical trials. They provide hands-on experience with several trials at different phases of progression and are to be based in a clinical trials unit. For me, I will be based at PRIMENT, the Clinical Trials Unit at UCL with expertise in trials conducted in primary care and to do with mental health, including my area of dementia. This will help consolidate the experience I have gained so far and training from completing an MSc in Clinical Trials, with further hands-on experience in dementia trials at a leading trials unit.

I can highly recommend NIHR fellowships and happy to discuss them with colleagues interested in applying for one.

Sustainability and consumer trust go hand-in-hand. Organisations need to understand what drives trust and how to build trust if they are to achieve sustainability. This was the message that Associate Professor Julie Robson delivered as part of her keynote presentation at the LIGUE (Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire en Gestion Université-Entreprise) in Carthage Tunisia.

This presentation builds on the trust repair research supported by BU QR funding and undertaken within the Faculty of Management. The project examined how trust repair differs from trust building and the use of different mechanisms to restore trust, particularly after a scandal or crisis. Details of the project and team members can be found here.

This conference was hosted by the University of Manouba, Tunis and supported by the Academy of Marketing B2B SIG. The theme was sustainability goals in the era of digitalization in North Africa and was attended by academics and practitioners from the MENA countries.

The EU-funded project led by Professor Mendis (Principal Investigator) consists of other UK and European partners including University of Glasgow, Scotland; Added Scientific Ltd UK, Technopolis Group Vienna Austria, University of Lapland, Finland and Boehmert & Boehmert, Munich Germany. The project is currently in progress and is due for completion in May 2019.

The project aims to provide an overview of the past and current industrial applications of Additive Manufacturing (AM) in selected sectors whilst identifying potential challenges and opportunities in need of clarification. In essence, the Study will aim to formulate a clear picture of the Intellectual Property (IP) framework that could enhance the competitiveness of the AM sector in Europe.

Regulating 3D printing has been the focus of attention recently, with the European Parliament adopting a resolution put forward by the Legal Affairs Committee to regulate 3D printing from the perspective of intellectual property (IP) and civil liability. The resolution was adopted in July 2018.

Dr Gloria Khamkar from BU’s Faculty of Media and Communication recently visited York University, Canada to meet Dr Anne F. MacLennan (Associate Professor) under the BU Acorn Funding scheme. The aim of this trip was to explore the possibility of developing a collaborative research project in the field of community radio for migrants in the UK and Canada. Gloria spent a week in Canada to work on this task. As an outcome of this trip, she is applying for the British Academy Small Research Grants 2018, which is due for the submission this week.

This proposed research project would examine the culture of radio catering to South Asian migrant communities in the UK and Canada. It will examine the changing culture of radio for the migrant communities by interrogating the surrounding questions of the existence, relevance and significance of this medium. The proposed research project focuses on ‘impact’ and is timely.

Gloria believes that it was a learning experience visiting Canada and working on this project proposal under the BU Acorn Funding scheme, and, that this support is very valuable for the early career researchers like her at BU.

Mr. John Kasse presented the paper The Need for Compliance Verification in Collaborative Business Processes, in the 19th IFIP Working Conference on Virtual Enterprises (PRO-VE 2018), Cardiff, UK, 17-19 Sep 2018. John’s paper is a result of Working Package 4 On-the-fly Service-oriented Process Verification of EU FIRST project, which BU is leading.

I recently had the opportunity to apply for a grant as principal investigator. The reason for writing this post today is to say thanks to everyone involved, including the RKEO staff, the Co-investigators (Paula Callus in particular), the partner institutions but also all colleagues who gave us suggestions, supporting and helping also if not involved (Isabella Rega and Richard Berger were some of these).

On reflection, I would have done all of it differently. More time was needed (possibly not when on Annual Leave and not night time), partners need to be in place well before the call is out, reference letters cannot be asked for last minute, etc. I made all (or almost all) the mistakes above, but I had a very clear idea about the project and I felt surrounded by enthusiastic colleagues who were happy to share their expertise with me. I now know I have still a lot to learn and I can’t wait for the next opportunity.

A good point was to take notes which will be used for next grant applications. Somehow it does not matter if we will get the funding at this first attempt, we are looking forward to improving the application and the project itself, which will require more research. Yes, applying for grants is not a boring task, there is a lot of research involved which brings new ideas and opens up opportunities, whether you get the funding or not.

I hope this post will be read as a positive gentle push to apply for grants and not only because it’s the Institution in need of more grants applications but because the process itself is incredibly enriching. I hope my colleagues enjoy their future grant applications as much as I did.